PRAYER TO THE HOLY CHILD MARY

Sweet Child Mary, destined to be the Mother of God and our sovereign and loving Mother, by the prodigies of grace you lavish upon us, mercifully listen to my humble supplications.

In the needs wich press upon me from every side and especially in my present tribulation. I place all my trust in you.

O holy Child, by the privileges granted to you alone and by the merits with you have acquired, be merciful to me this day.

Show that the source of spiritual favors and the continuous benefits wich you dispense are inexhaustible, because your power with the Heart of God is unlimited.

Design through the immense profusion of grace wich the most Higt has enriched you from the first moment of your Immaculate Conception, grant me, O Celestial Child, my petitions and I shall eternally praise the goodness of your Heart.

Amen

THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
(Memorial)

Religious parents never fail by devout prayer to consecrate their children to the divine service and love, both before and after their birth.

Some amongst the Jews, not content with this general consecration of their children, offered them to God in their infancy, by the hands of the priests in the Temple, to be lodged in apartments belonging to the Temple, and brought up in attending the priests and Levites in the sacred ministry.

It is an ancient tradition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was thus solemnly offered to God in the Temple in her infancy. This festival of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin the Church celebrates this day.

The tender soul of Mary was then adorned with the most precious graces, an object of astonishment and praise to the angels, and of the highest complacence to the adorable Trinity; the Father looking upon her as his beloved daughter, the Son as one chosen and prepared to become his mother, and the Holy Spirit as his darling spouse.

Mary was the first who set up the standard of virginity; and, by consecrating it by a perpetual vow to our Lord, she opened the way to all virgins who have since followed her example.